Craig Winn

Craig Winn is an American self-published author and self-proclaimed terrorism expert. In the 1990s he was a Dot.com entrepeneur whose online mall Value America raised investments from Microsoft and Federal Express.[1], but went bankrupt within a year of its IPO and was deemed the first "dot bomb".

After the events of September 11th, Winn began a research project with colleague Kevin Power to "unconver the roots of terrorism". They visited 120 countries and interviewed members of al-Qaeda, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Force 17, the Palestinian Authority, the Knesset, IDF, and US generals, as well as Israeli secret service agents in the Mossad and Shin Bet. The two published their findings in the novel Tea With Terrorists.[2]

Winn has been interviewed in Business Week[3], and has been a guest on many radio shows in the U.S.[4].

Business career

In 1977 Craig joined his father's company, Winn Co., after graduating from the University of Southern California with business degrees in marketing and finance. There he worked as a manufacturer's representative. In 1986, he founded and built a lighting company called Dynasty, which he brought public in 1990, and which went bankrupt in 1993. In 1996, he founded Value America, an early sort of electronic mall that was briefly second only to Amazon.com. The company had a successful IPO in early 1999 but failed within a year. Winn's share of Value America was, on paper, worth over $1 billion after the company's IPO, and he planned to use his new wealth to bankroll a political career, including a run for the presidency of the United States. These plans were shelved when Value America imploded a few months later.

Published works

His first book is titled Tea With Terrorists, co-written with Ken Power. In this book, they document an investigation of the motives of terrorists. Winn has also authored Prophet of Doom, which is a survey of Muhammad's life as derived from the Qur'an and Hadith. Other works of his are In The Company of Good & Evil (also written with Ken Power), Future History and Yada Yahweh.

Thesis

According to Prophet of Doom and Tea With Terrorists, Islamic terrorists are inspired by the actions of Muhammad and and the verses in the Qu'ran. Winn carefully documents this thesis in his topical examination of the Islamic scriptures which he uses as the foundation of this conclusion.

With the help of a team of scholars Winn's compared used the hadiths to retrace the original time sequence of the verses of the Qu'ran and put the verses of the Qur'an in Chronological order.

Winn worked with his team of researchers to compile an extensive timeline of Islamic terrorism.[5],[6]

Muslim reponse

Winn's work has not been well received in the Muslim community, and some have circulated a petition to have one of his books banned and censored.[7] Winn reports receiving numerous death threats from angry Muslims for the content of his book. [8].

Winn' s has documented numerous attempts of "Muslims filing complaints with the domain registrar to release private information" regarding his location and their repeated attempts to hijack the site [9].

Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes notes that the censorious muslim response to Winn's treatise raises important concerns regarding freedom of speech and the press. [10].

CAIR has accused Winn of "hatemongering and fomenting incitement for the purpose of cashing in on fear and ignorance."

Television and Radio guest appearances

Winn has conducted over 1500 media appearances [11]. He also made numerous radio interviews in America and abroad. [12]. Among his host commentators were Art Bell, Michael Savage and Mike Gallagher. Some of the shows are made available on his sight [13]

Bibliography

• Prophet Of Doom: Islam's Terrorist Dogma In Muhammad's Own Words, Faithworks (April 2004)
• Tea With Terrorists: Who They Are, Why They Kill, What Will Stop Them Faithworks (October 2002)
• In the Company of Good and Evil: A True Story of Seduction and Betrayal Cricketsong Books (January 2002)
• Future History: The End of the Beginning

External links

• Craig Winn's first online book, Tea With Terrorists
• Winn's followup to Tea With Terrorists, pdf & mp3 formats, Prophet Of Doom
• Article about Value America on virginiabusiness.com
• Selection of Winn's radio interviews
• Winn Debates a Muslim